Buzzwords: More substance in VP debate; Romney mentioned a lot more than Obama

The only vice presidential debate of the election is over, and it’s clear to anyone who watched that tonight’s showdown was much more dynamic and spirited than the first presidential debate between President Obama and Mitt Romney last week.

Using the cloud generator Wordle, we’ve put together a visual of each candidates’ transcripts for a clear view of the focus of this debate.

With a lot more back and forth between Biden and Ryan, their language was more varied than the first Obama/Romney debate. They seemed to cover a lot more content over a wider range of topics in the same amount of time as their running mates.

From taxes to Medicare to foreign security, Biden and Ryan offered very opposing views, but one topic that seemed to bring them together was the idea of the American people. A look at the debate transcripts shows “people” was the most commonly used word in the entire debate, by both candidates.

Taxes were on the tip of both men’s tongues as each argued how the other’s plan would be harmful to the economy.

And as both Obama and Romney have said throughout the campaign, this election will be a choice between two very different paths for America. Romney once again defined the conversation with Ryan arguing for his polices and Biden arguing against them. The word “Romney” was uttered 47 times by both running mates. Note how infrequently the word “Obama” was used by both debaters.

Paul Ryan Word Cloud (Alex Yap/Houston Chronicle)

Joe Biden’s debate word cloud (Alex Yap/Houston Chronicle)

For as many times as Biden called Ryan “my friend”, that phrase didn’t show up nearly as much as prominently was we would have expected. In fact, Biden addressed the moderator, Martha Raddatz, by name more than he addressed his opponent.

Also absent from this graphic is the amount of time Biden spent laughing during his opponent’s remarks. His physical language was not lost on viewers though. The hash tag #ThingsThatMakeBidenLaugh was trending nationally on Twitter, just after the debate was over. Ryan’s seemingly never-ending thirst was a topic of discussion as well.